TT Journal, ISSUE 6, September 2023
Editorial by Tereza Stehlikova
Play and Love
In his essay biologist and writer Andreas Weber reminds us that “Play is the way of the living to fulfil its needs in freedom. And that means: biological life realized in fullness is life as play.”
Play=Object
Artist Krzysztof Fijałkowski and writer Victoria Mitchell discuss their ludic methods for exploring the interactions between structure and turmoil, between form and the formless as part of their research group Pattern & Chaos, Norwich University of the Arts.
Drawing Performance/Performance Drawing
Artist and educator Lucy Algar shares her playful experience of conducting a workshop for the Prague Quadrennial 2023, focused on establishing the connectivity between the act of drawing and the act of performance.
Modelling Clay as a Medium
Artist and researcher Lenka Hámošová considers the importance of embodiment in regards to human and AI co-creation and discusses her collaborative AI workshop, which forms part of her artistic research.
Beyond Productivity: finding and creating meaning
Writer and thinker Larissa Lily reflects on her experience of teaching dance to children and questions our over prioritisation of outcome over the joy of the creative process.
Play and the Organic Flow of Time
Professor of developmental psychology Maya Gratier examines the time-based element in play, drawing attention to its rhythms and sequencing, as well as the vital role of stillness and invites us to consider play as the ultimate form of reciprocity, which binds together the living world in a series of complex interactions.
Play Pistoia
Photographer and filmmaker Bartolomeo Pampaloni shares a short film about the visionary early years education in the city of Pistoia, Northern Italy, originally commissioned by Wellcome Collection, London for their PLAY WELL exhibition, 2019.
It all started with a Joker
Artist Evelyna Nova looks for new patterns and moments of synchronicity in the seemingly random encounters with playing cards and introduces us to her global card game, which you can also join.
Return to Earth: A Reflection on Cosmic Synthesis
Artist and educator Isa Juchniewicz explores ways of playing and being playful with new media, encouraging experimental and creative collaboration between people of various artistic backgrounds, sensibilities, ages and familiarity with technology.
Playing with Art: A Haptic Performance
Sculptor Roz Driscoll reflects on the epic collaboration between herself and dancer Paul Matteson, with whom she explored the potential of dance improvisation as a means of animating and reconfiguring her sculptural pieces, allowing for unfolding of new narratives and meanings.
On Scenographic Writing
Scenographer and writer Dordi Strøm realises that for her, crafting scenography and writing novels are all acts of place orientation, as she explains to us the resonances between her theatre work and her novel, grounded as they are in their specific environment.
Sweet Muscle
Artist Nuala Clooney shares some of the playful methods which she employs in her artistic practice, designing sculptural pieces that explore ingestion as a means of seduction, of crossing the boundary between outside and inside, revealing a space of intimacy, vulnerability and heightened sensitivity.
Out of my Box: 27 videos from lockdown
During one of the London lockdowns the filmmaker Matt Hulse, trapped in a small room, decides to defy the drudgery, boredom and despair of the situation and creates a series of short, playful and mischievous films. Also includes Matt’s Ten Haiku on Filmmaking.
Jumpers for Goalposts: Three Years of Kicking It About
Artist and educator Phil Gomm has set up an online community of fellow collaborators, who help each other to unleash their creativity and playfulness by shortening the gap between the brief and the output, or in other words, by not overthinking.
Play: Maker of our Many Selves
Artist and educator Sara Khan explores how our identity is shaped by play, how play makes us free and how important it is to be present through all our senses in order to remember better.
A poem
Writer and filmmaker Susan Hibberd shares her short poem ‘the pearl and the dragon’s eyeball’
Cover image by Bartolomeo Pampaloni
